Wireless portable devices continue to grow in popularity and functionality. Such increasingly popular devices include media players such as Apple's iPod, cellular telephones, wireless IP-based telephones such as devices made Helio, Linksys, etc., wireless network compatible multimedia devices such as Microsoft Zune, Apple iPhone, etc., portable gaming consoles such as Sony PSP, Nokia N Gage, etc., and many other devices that can be used to send, receive, and/or render communications and/or multimedia data. Such devices may typically include a processing system, such as a digital signal processor (DSP) or microcontroller and memory that includes software instructions. While such portable devices continue to improve in processing power and functionality, and/or extended battery life, these devices still have limited signal processing capabilities and/or other resources compared to non-portable processing systems such as computers, network adaptors and routers, and/or fixed core network devices. Typically, portable devices are preferably small, preferably inexpensive, have limited processing capabilities, limited memory resources and/or have limited battery power.
Small cell wireless networks such as wireless personal area networks (WPANs) and pico-cell cellular telephone networks are known. These have in common a base station, called a base station in the case of a cellular telephone network, and an access point in the case of a wireless network, that communicate with one or more client devices in a cell. They also have in common a relatively small cell, in the order or meters or less. In such systems, having a small relatively inexpensive client device with relatively long battery life is important.
In stark contrast to the client device, a fixed processing system that a wireless client device communicates with, such as one in a server computer system, a network adaptor, a network router, a wireless base station/access point, and/or some fixed core network device, has significantly greater signal processing capabilities and relatively unlimited access to electric power. Thus, fixed systems typically feature relatively high speed processing capabilities, much larger memory capabilities than portable devices, and virtually unlimited access to electrical power.
In general, a device such as a portable device that has limited resource(s) compared to fixed processing system, is called a “limited resource device herein.” A base station refers to an access point, a cellular base station, or a similar wireless transceiver herein that wirelessly transmits media data to a resource limited device.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,802,467 describes a wireless communication, command, control and sensing system for sound and data transmission and reception. WO02/27985 describes a system for automating the volume control to a radio device based on measured parameters.